On Sunday, conditions at the beach were gentle. It was low tide, with a light swell and small waves. There was plenty of room to make sand castles and bury kids in holes.
The next day it was high tide with a sizeable swell and the waves were crashing hard and sliding all the way up the beach to the sand dunes. There was no room to play or anywhere to relax.
I pondered how life can be like this. One day its gentle, plenty of room to play and relax, then suddenly, overnight it can change and things feel like that are crashing down around us, with no room for movement.
What surprises me the most, is when I have calm periods I forget that they don’t last forever, or when I have heavy crashing periods I forget calmer times will come.
Yesterdays conditions, like the surf , may be a completely different from today.
[194 | 365 – Changing Conditions – The family wade in the water as surfies watch the impact of the large swell and high tide]
Category: Photos (Page 8 of 11)
Two mammoth reminders from our visit to the mining battery ruins of at Waikino with the kids.
#1 ‘At school I don’t like history and feel like falling asleep’. Our kids really got a kick out of the personalised guided tour by a couple of retired volunteers. They enjoyed seeing and touching and experiencing. The learning that comes from seeing can be immeasurable compared to reading a book or watching a DVD.
#2 100 years ago, at the height of the mining, they were felling 1 hectare of native forest a day all so they could refine more gold. Mankind is destructive and we were and are bad stewards of the world we live in.
[192 | 365 – ‘Waikino Kilns’ – The kids emerge from exploring the Waikino Kilns. Awesome knowledgeable volunteers gave us a great tour of the museum, kilns and tramaway ride.]
For as far as the eye could see low bulbous cloud covered the country and out beyond the sea to the horizon. The sun creeps up to the skyline as the earths revolution enables the break of a new day. The darkness of the night sky fades to blue then to burning bright yellows that reflect over the cloud.
From 18000 ft, the curve of the earth is apparent, and I am in AWE of the work of God’s hand. The depth, perspective, colour, cloud, light and darkness are amazing. Such beauty that the camera did not and will never fully capture.
Then I am reminded how honoured I am to enjoy it. Less than 100 years ago, few men had ever seen such sights, and even today, very few people around the earth will see such things.
[189 | 365 – In Awe – An amazing sunrise as I flew to Christchurch]
It is said that man has always looked at the birds and longed to fly.
Well, I have a non-current pilots licence and could fly, but don’t. I just dream about it. I was talking about it with a friend on the way home from work, and it reminded me about how I long to fly, about how when I get airborne I join a different world, and about how much energy it brings me. Yet flying costs money and that is an entirely different subject.
Anyway, I got home thinking about planes so took this shot of a Cessna 152 made out of Sprite Cans.
[184 | 365 Dream of Flying?]
You may have heard that it takes 40 days to make a habit, or 28 days or some other iterative. Wrong, wrong and wrong again.
Between yesterday and today I am halfway through 365. I missed one day in 183 days, which for me is amazing. The only other things I have done for 183 days straight in my life, is get up, eat and breathe.
For me after about 50 days, remembering to take the photo became a habitual, but actually taking the photo requires another step up in discipline again. For example, it was a mission to make it to 100, and today’s photo is because I remembered, not because I had a flash of creativity.
I am learning about habits and discipline. Disciplines like going to the gym, running, reading, studying or quiet times. For me it takes about 30 – 50 days for the thought process to become habitual, to become ingrained as a priority in my life.
But every time, every single time, I still need to choose to take action, to step out and run, or do my quiet time, or take a photo.
If you think I have the habit thing sorted out, I don’t. It’s like today’s shot on my drive to Tauranga. The glare from driving into the sun, the dirty window, makes my view lack clarity. Same for my knowledge of just about everything.
[183 | 365 ‘Halfway #2’ – Down the Kaimai’s driving into the sun, behind a slow truck]
Somewhere between today and tomorrow I am halfway through project 365, which is taking a picture each day for 365 days.
Looking back and ahead, I think I would like to take more people shots because they show more of life than objects, or candles, or coffee drops. If I do this, it will take another level of discipline again because I will need to go looking for interesting people shots.
Speaking of interesting people, today I was online on Skype waiting for a call that never came, but then my friend Steve gave me a call.
The first thing Steve did was encourage me, it just rolls off his tongue honestly and naturally. He has this incredible ability to build people up and I am often reminded by Steve’s actions how important that is.
I’m reminded today that life is about people.
[182 | 365 – ‘Halfway #1’ – Steve the encourager and a reminder how much I love technology]
Agora’s story is being formed one drop, one cup of coffee at a time.
Yesterday I sat at Agora drinking a wonderful coffee made by the infamous Simon, and over heard a customer tell her two friends great things about the café, about how we give 50cents from each cup of coffee to charity.
There is nothing quite so satisfying as having one of our customers tell the story for us.
As I left the café I remembered the conversations we had as trustees about story. I remembered how one idea developed into another. I remembered how we want agora to make an impact on our community and have a story.
As I left the café, I also thought about my story, about the story of my family, my business, my friends. Those stories, like Agora’s, are a working in progress.
Like a great coffee brewing, one drop at a time, story is very powerful.
[181 | 365 ‘Coffee Stories’ a shot of a shot of coffee brewing, one drop at a time at café agora]
I have this strange passionate love hate relationship with my Mondays. They are a day of meetings, a day of bouncing from one thing to another, a day of follow up, a day of setting new tasks. But, Mondays move us forward, keep us accountable, help us set priorities.
As a general rule, I really struggle to take photos on a Monday. So, because the season is changing, I have decided for the next 6 Mondays I am going to take the same shot, from home, at around the same time. Hopefully I will see the change of the season in a new and beautiful way.
If not, at least I will have Monday’s shot sorted.
When your kids are 3 they are all artists. Regardless of how recognisable their drawing is we encourage them over and over again as they mass-produce their drawings and scribbles and … art.
By 10 many kids will realise that they don’t draw as well as other kids and by the late teens, you are either an artist or your not. Most feel useless at art and stop creating.
Art is defined “the creation of beautiful or significant things” and art is more than drawings or paintings. Sadly our societies, schools and families stop encouraging our kids to be artist, the way we used to when they were 3.
This leads to less creative adults.
Consequently less beautiful or significant things are created.
[178 | 365 Art – This is a shot of Siren drawing a picture for Talia at the Rototuna School market day]
Money is a medium of exchange for things of value. This means that we use money to buy things we value.
If I pay you wages it’s because I value your time and give you money. If we buy art or food or clothes or coffee or toys or random stuff. In each case we decided to spend our money on something we value.
Therefore, personally I value café coffee every couple of days more than other things. It’s that simple! More than saving the money, more than paying off the mortgage, more than using it towards buying my wife flowers, more than giving it to the good.trust to give to the poor.
If you asked me if I value coffee more than these things I would say ‘NO’, but the cold, hard reality is that the way I spend my money shows I do.
So if you want to see what people really value, look at how they spend their money.
[177 | 365 – ‘Things we value’ – Last night, I had no photo, so choose to take a photo of twenty dollar notes falling in front of my camera]